South Africa’s 2024 general election, with its devastating loss of a majority for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), is also damaging for President Cyril Ramaphosa (71). To lead your party to such a huge loss of electoral support is an indictment, and the toughest test of your leadership capabilities.
The ANC’s poor performance – winning only 40% of the vote, down from 57.5% in 2019 – robbed it of the simple majority – 50%+1 – needed to form a government on its own. At the time of writing, the party was trying to put together a government of national unity.
The ANC came to power in 1994 under Nelson Mandela. Ramaphosa became ANC president in December 2017. He replaced Jacob Zuma as the president of the country a day after Zuma was forced to resign in February 2018 amid public outrage and a threatened vote of no confidence over corruption during his term. Ramaphosa, who was his deputy at the time, was then elected president.
